Union Finance Ministry (Revenue Department) has imposed anti dumping duty on “textured toughened (tempered) glass” imported from China for next five years. The reason behind imposing anti dumping duty on tempered glass imported from China is to protect domestic industry from losses occurring. The Chinese tempered glasses are available at much lesser prices as compared to Indian tempered glass.

What is textured toughened (tempered) glass and where it is used?

Textured toughened (tempered) glass is used in making solar photovoltaic panels and solar thermal applications. Besides being called as “textured toughened (tempered) glass”, it is also known by following three names:

Solar glass

Low iron solar glass

High transmission photovoltaic glass

Company named as Gujarat Borosil Ltd had filled petition to impose the anti dumping duty on tempered glass imposed from China saying that domestic industry is suffering losses due to low prices of Chinese tempered glasses. The price is less than the domestic value of the product.

Gujarat Borosil Ltd is the sole producer of of tempered glass in the country.

So the revenue department which is the designated authority in its final findings imposed anti-dumping duty between the ranges of $52.85 per tonne to $136.21 per tonne. The anti-dumping duty imposed will be depending on the producer and exporter from China.

What is Anti Dumping Duty?

Anti-dumping duty is imposed on import of products. It is imposed by the government on the products which are having their price less than the domestic value in order to ensure that it doesn’t affect the domestic industry. This measure is used by countries under multilateral World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime. The duty is not same for all countries and products.